John Morley

This being so, my rule of action was changed at once, and I determined on taking any and every legitimate opportunity to remove the existing government from office.

Are you prepared to go forward without either Hartington or Chamberlain?” I answered, “Yes.” I believe it was in my mind to say, if I did not actually say it, that I was prepared to go forward without anybody.

In reason all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery; but in fact eleven men well armed will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt....

Those who have used to cramp liberty have gone so far as to resent even the liberty of complaining; although a man upon the rack was never known to be refused the liberty of roaring as loud as he thought fit.—JONATHAN SWIFT.

He had already, he observed, in the government of 1880 made concessions on other subjects that might be thought to have shaken public confidence in him; he could go no further without destroying that confidence altogether.

Whatever its place in the hierarchy, he knew that he could trust himself to make it as important as he pleased, and that his weight in the cabinet and the House would not depend upon the accident of a department.

Yet short as the Salisbury government has been, it would not at all surprise me if this were to be shorter still, such are the difficulties that bristle round the Irish question.

But the great thing is to be right; and as far as matters have yet advanced, I see no reason to be apprehensive in this capital respect.

It is necessary to see our way a little on these at the outset, for, unless these portions of anything we attempt are sound and well constructed, we cannot hope to succeed.

On the other hand, if we fail, as I believe the late ministers would have failed even to pass their plan of repressive legislation, the consequences will be deplorable in every way.

You cannot announce a grand revolution, and then beg the world to wait.

The very reason that justified the policy commanded expedition.

Anxiety and excitement were too intense out of doors for anything but a speedy date, and it was quite certain that if the new plan were not at once propounded, no other public business would have much chance.

It is a mere fable of faction that a cast iron policy was arbitrarily imposed upon the cabinet; as matter of fact, the plan originally propounded did undergo large and radical modifications.

First, a scheme for creating a legislative body, and defining its powers; second, a scheme for opening the way to a settlement of the land question, in discharge of an obligation of honour and policy, imposed upon this country by its…

Bricks and rafters are prepared for a house, but are not themselves a house.” The evil hour was postponed, but not for long.

But everybody who is acquainted with either the great or the small conflicts of human history, knows how little the mere terms of a principle or of an objection are to be trusted as a clue either to its practical significance, or (M110) to…

He felt, justly enough, that a minister who had once deliberately invited his party and the people of the three kingdoms to follow him on so arduous and bold a march as this, had no right on any common plea to turn back until he had…

He never slurred over difficulties, nor tried to pretend that rough was smooth.

On the other hand, he had nothing in common with that desperate species of counsellor, who takes all the small points, and raises objections instead of helping to contrive expedients.

He measured the ground with a slow and careful eye, and fixed tenaciously on the thing that was essential at the moment.

He was a man of temperament, of will, of authority, of power; not of ideas or ideals, or knowledge, or political maxims, or even of the practical reason in any of its higher senses, as Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson had practical reason.

He was a party chief, not a maker of constitutions.

He made one significant suggestion: he wished the bill to impose the same disqualification upon the clergy as exists in our own parliament.

I would use my best endeavours to make these States independent in matters of administration.